Victim(s):

Suspect(s):

Description of Incident:

As a local father headed to his parents-in-law’s Tamarac home to pick up his 3-year-old child Wednesday afternoon, he expected a confrontation. So he hit the record button on his iPhone before he got out of the car. The recording became chilling evidence of a violent, sudden attack that put him in the hospital and his 66-year-old mother-in-law behind bars.

Shortly after 5 p.m., Salvatore Miglino pulled up to the house of his estranged parents-in-law to pick up his son, per a court order that authorizes him to take custody of the child every Wednesday night. His mother-in-law, Cheryl Hepner, met him outside with the boy’s pillow and bag. Hepner told Miglino that his father-in-law wanted to talk to him inside. Miglino declined to go in the house and asked for the pillow and bag. Hepner pulled a handgun out from behind the pillow and fired three shots at her son-in-law. Wounded in his ribcage and shoulder, he landed on top of her in the front yard.

On the recording, he is heard screaming, “I can’t believe you did that. I can’t believe you shot me.” She uses profanity and repeatedly tells him to get off her. Afterward, she told authorities that Miglino had tried to shoot her but she knocked the gun out of his hand, picked it up and shot him instead.

Tamarac Fire Rescue transported Miglino to Broward General Hospital, and he has been released. Hepner was taken into custody Thursday night and charged with attempted first-degree murder. She is being held in BSO’s Main Jail.

Media note: The video is available at www.sheriff.org. Hepner’s mug shot is attached to the bottom of this report.

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